Degen, Courtney. (2023, January 31). California bills call for CalPERS, CalSTRS to divest fossil fuels, company climate disclosure. Retrieved February 8, 2023, from https://www.pionline.com/esg/california-bills-call-calpers-calstrs-divest-fossil-fuels-company-climate-disclosure

As part of the Climate Accountability Legislative Package (which includes SB 253), State Senator Lena Gonales introduced a bill to ban California’s state pension funds—California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS)—from investing in fossil fuel companies. CalPERS is $456.6 billion, and CalSTRS is $302.1 billion; each fund has billions of dollars invested in fossil fuel companies. Opponents of this legislation argue that CalPERS and CalSTRS’ investments in those firms would simply be bought by other investors, and California pension funds would ultimately lose assets with no positive benefits. 

I have mixed feelings about this bill. On the one hand, secure pensions for government employees are more important than acting on principle, especially if this action may not cause significant change in environmental policy. On the other hand, the government should not invest in fossil fuel companies, pensions are already fairly secure, and the divestment has the potential to significantly harm the fossil fuel industry. Since it could go either way, I lean in favor of the bill. This article relates to environmental science because the bill in question aims to preserve the environment by lessening support for the primary producers of fossil fuels.